#mycraftbeerepiphany

#mycraftbeerepiphany
Published - 31.07.2012 Comments (47)

This is the People's Manifesto

We want to hear about when you realized that bland, insipid industrial beer was nothing more than bland, insipid industrial beer.

We want to hear about when the craft beer bug caught you and opened your eyes to a whole world of flavour you never imagined possible.

BrewDog Newcastle Officially Open.

We want to hear about when you first tasted a craft beer so good that it blew your mind.

We want to hear about when you vowed to never again drink tasteless fizzy crap made by  faceless multinational hammerheads.

We want to hear about the moment you vowed allegiance to the uncompromising craft beer revolution.

We want to hear about your craft beer epiphany.

We want you to get in touch via the comment box below, via the twitter hashtag #mycraftbeerepiphany or via our facebook page.

We are going collate all the comments (140 characters or less!) about craft beer drinker's conversion to great beer and publish them in a people's manifesto for the craft beer revolution.

BrewDog Manchester is now open!

* The craft beer epiphany concept came from one of our drinkers. Giulia Cologni you are a star and we love you!

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Comments (47)
LewisMorrison 02.08.2012 @ 10:10pm
Steamworks Vancouver on my honeymoon 1996. Worked my way through all of their craft brews pint by pint. At pint 6 the barman said "people usually only have one or two". Thankfully Mrs M loves craft beer too. And lo, a lifetime of beer tourism was born. Oh, and the honeymoon wasn't too bad
barry m 02.08.2012 @ 3:20pm
For me it started on my travels in Canada when I discovered a local brewery called the wild rose in Calgary I have still have fond memories of their cherry porter and also a local bar called brewsters who only served their own craft beer. After this my taste buds were open. Then more travels in USA discovering stone sierra Nevada st Arnold Brooklyn brewery. Then finally back home to brewdog and never looked back. I BELIEVE IN HAPPY HOPS
doxor 02.08.2012 @ 1:29pm
I was like 10 when I tasted my dad's homebrewed beer, it could be terrible but somehow it was mindblowing, too.Now I have a real beerepiphany every time I taste a new nature creation..HOPSPOWER!
[email protected] 02.08.2012 @ 12:24pm
BrewDog Bar Edinburgh. Raining outside. Justice on the radio. 5AM Saint followed by Punk IPA followed by Hardcore IPA followed by buying into Equity for Punks. I no longer have ANY money.
Louie 02.08.2012 @ 11:09am
Beats drinking warm cans of Tennents in Seaton park. Think it was around 2007 while on Holiday in Vancouver. Sampled a few craft beers and microbreweries over there, returned to Aberdeen to discover Brewdog in McLeish and Miller Deli I think it was. Never looked backed.
HBC 02.08.2012 @ 9:33am
Are you sccreening your comments now or just for the GBBF
OyvindGG 01.08.2012 @ 8:57pm
Studied a coupled of years in Australia and went to an Oktoberfest in 2001 (basically a beer festival highlighting Australian micros) under the Story Bridge in Brisbane. Discovered a barley wine calle "Moonshine" and drank it blissfully all night! Returned as a poor student back home to Norway the following year to a country deprived of good beer, all I had was a longing for the real stuff. In the autumn of 2003 I lived a month in Belfast as part of my teacher training. Went to the Belfast Beer and Music Festival and got blown away - still got the pint glass I bought there! Never looked back, will probably open a micro in two years time..
Bill_00 01.08.2012 @ 2:45pm
I was probably barely 18...having drank my fair share of local NI brewed lager (H**P) I went on a trip to England and saw some olde worldy pull pumps...1 pint from those and I was sold for life!I think Morning Glory from Badger was probably the first bottle I had that really opened my eyes to the possibilities of what a beer could taste like
Luke R 01.08.2012 @ 2:25pm
A girl introduced me to Craft beer. I started dating her and one night she said "I will bring some Belgian beer around tonight" I replied "Stella?" she simply laughed and said "No, some proper Belgian beer".Later thant night I was introduced to Leffe Blonde. My tastebuds was asking themselves "Why does this taste so much better than the rest?" Then, a true love was formed. We started to search for Belgian beer bars and found 2 in Altrincham. Further tasting of various beers led us to visit Brugge TWICE! From that moment we searched for our local craft beer bars in Manchester's norther quater. Finding The Port street beer house as our local. Then something extraordinary happened.On Tesco's beer aisle, I kept wondering past Punk IPA and one day, The same amazing woman said "I am going to try this" and I am glad she did. From the first taste a love for hops begun and before we knew it, Manchester had it's very own Brewdog bar. I am going to marry that woman. Hop til' you drop!
Luke R 01.08.2012 @ 2:15pm
A girl introduced me to Craft beer. I started dating her and one night she said "I will bring some Belgian beer around tonight" I replied "Stella?" she simply laughed and said "No, some proper Belgian beer".Later thant night I was introduced to Leffe Blonde. My tastebuds was asking themselves "Why does this taste so much better than the rest?" Then, a true love was formed. We started to search for Belgian beer bars and found 2 in Altrincham. Further tasting of various beers led us to visit Brugge TWICE! A
Papa K 01.08.2012 @ 1:08pm
As a young lad in the office, a grizzled old timer who I hugely respected regailed me with tales of ales, stouts and crafted brew.Thought id give it a try and picked up a Sierra Nevada pale ale and a hobgoblin amongst others.15 years later and I've developed my tastes and my 2/3 trips a year to Nottingham with work are all about the latest fayre in brewdog
vogod 01.08.2012 @ 12:38pm
Had Fuller's ESB one fateful summer day. Got hooked on good beer. Porterhouse in Ireland introduced me to the "craftbrew attitude" a year or two later.
Shandy-arper 01.08.2012 @ 9:16am
The State Bar on Holland Street when I started at uni started it all, then after a few ale festivals and some home-brewing I had my moment of hoppy Zen. A few years ago around Christmas, the really cold one when Glasgow was frozen solid I carefully edged my way down a frozen hill to my mates house with precious cargo, four of us huddled together for warmth to share the (then) strongest beer ever brewed, Tactical Nuclear Penguin. Blew. My. Mind...
buford spangler 01.08.2012 @ 1:22am
Grew up on bitter whilst mates were drinking Stella. Loved the micro brewery revolution then was introduced to punk IPA by someone I'd introduced to real ale many years before. What goes around comes around.
S 31.07.2012 @ 8:02pm
The great cask beers with great festivals from over 600 great breweries across the UK.
Chris H 31.07.2012 @ 6:19pm
I have never liked lager. Growing up in the bible belt, USA... anything else was hard to come by. The first beer I could handle was an Irish red ale, then brown ale... years later, discovered Duck Rabbit milk stout and porter on a trip home. Then weeks later went to the Taste of Edinburgh Festival, and found a little booth by (you guessed it) BrewDog. Had a free sample, bought an Alice Porter, then went straight to the BrewDog Edinburgh and had a Tokyo*. I was in love...
william m 31.07.2012 @ 5:41pm
Was always a cask ale fan, but I'll never forget the first time the intense hoppy aroma of a punk captured me. In that instant I knew I had to join the revolution
Olsta 31.07.2012 @ 4:42pm
The day I realised that there were hundreds of breweries in the UK and internationally, employing highly skilled brewers quietly producing beer without resorting to shameless publicity stunts to flog their over-rated products.
Rob Fairs 31.07.2012 @ 4:18pm
After a life of drinking mainly real ale my Father bought me a Punk IPA. It is now the reason I love craft beer and have no money.
Jamie Cowie 31.07.2012 @ 2:52pm
After spending far too much of my early drinking life Stella and Guinness, I developed taste buds, and was introduce to the ‘beer concert’ that was the Aberdeen Beer Festival. I quickly developed a love for the terrific offerings from Highland, Orkney and Cairngorm as I like to buy ‘local’. And after a couple of years finding my feet in the wonderful and unknown world of real beer, I began to hear rumours and whispers of a strange new force brewing in the north east. Soon I would have my hands on the first precious batches of Physics, Punk, Paradox and Tokyo. It is fantastic to think that so many wonderful beers are made north of the central belt.
Bracken's Bitches 31.07.2012 @ 2:49pm
Well bear with me on this one, because it may be long but I will tie it up. I never really drank 'crap' beer. The worst beer I would drink would be a Harp, Twisted Thistle, Franziskaner, etc. As for US beers I never really drank any of them because I wasn't really aware of anything outside of the big majors.What I did drink a lot (and still do) is Single Malt Scotch. And of course we know that's made with barley malts and water from the different Scottish regions. So a little over two years ago a bar in Dallas had a tasting night where they featured five BrewDog beers. Unless I am mistaken it was Punk, Dogma, Bashah, Tokyo and Hardcore. To say that my life changed is an understatement.I do believe that the fact that I came from a Single Malt background was a big factor in me having such a favorable reaction to BrewDog. But the fact remains that since then, a whole new world of beers was opened up to me. Kind of the way the Beatles and Stones took the US blues and reinvented it, for me BrewDog exposed to an entire universe of beers I didn't know existed in the US and the world.It's a BrewDog world, and we're all Bracken's Bitches......
Jesus Poster Boy 31.07.2012 @ 1:58pm
It is difficult to remember when Kraft beer first came to my attention and started changing my viewpoint on faceless multinational companies. It was either when I bought an under attenuated Hardcore IPA out of that boutique tradeshop Sainsbury or when I read Brewing up a Business in 1867. Yawn.
Hop Killa 31.07.2012 @ 1:41pm
Mine came when brewdog invented American IPA and started the craftbeer revolution, I love hoppy beers now. All the other people tyring to make IPAs are just copy cats.
Junkaboy 31.07.2012 @ 1:30pm
One day I found out you could brew your own beer. I thought that would be a nice weekend hobby.Now I am in the final planning stage to open my brewpub/distillery...
Ian J 31.07.2012 @ 1:01pm
Grew up drinking mild and bitter from small local breweries, left home and carried on drinking from small breweries wherever possible. Then found out that most beers were full of fish guts and other unnecessary crap and began a quest to find pure tasty beers and am continually blown away by new discoveries from all over the UK.
Craft Beer Coach 31.07.2012 @ 1:01pm
For me, there was no epiphany with drinking quality beer. In 1986, at 18 I started out at The Brickskeller in Wash. DC drinking imports and haven't turned back since then. Craft was just a natural progression.The epiphany from craft beer comes in the form of it being a muse for how to live one's life. The passion. The motivation. A brewer's self sacrifice for a dream. As a certified life skills coach, craft beer is the muse for a program of empowerment and fulfillment for the craft beer community.
Sam W 31.07.2012 @ 12:43pm
I never liked industrial beer, always had problems drinking it when I was a teenager, one day (ca 1997) someone introduced me to a Belgian Wit and the rest was history. Now I have stock in Brewdog, have a big selection of craft beers in the cellar at home, and brew my own beer that am I am entering into a contest next month!
Arefyev 31.07.2012 @ 12:34pm
Lived in New York and realized that even with limited means I had to go to 23rd Street beer store and never buy a Bud Lite at a supermarket.
Brian Sherriff 31.07.2012 @ 12:32pm
Bored with the poor beer i had been drinking thought i would make my own and entered into home brewing, my results were better that the yellow stuff you get in pub and cans. This then set me on the road to trying different styles and tastes in the beer world.
Tom M 31.07.2012 @ 12:30pm
The only Lager in the only pub worth drinking in near me is Litovel: a hellish combination of Eastern Block misery and metallic water. It had already turned me to drinking "real ale" but I was finding even these ever changing beers to be bland. A chance find of a cool looking, sarcastic little beer in a supermarket changed it all. My first taste of PunkIPA: I've never looked back.
Didsbury Brewer 31.07.2012 @ 12:27pm
@PortStreetBeerHouse has a lot to answer for.
Matthew V 31.07.2012 @ 12:25pm
After being without beer for over a year seeing Trashy Blonde on sale in a bar in Tunbridge Wells.
Cstewart 31.07.2012 @ 12:22pm
Around 1999 when I moved from Scotland to the States. Got a 6 pack of Sierra Nevada from Walgreens Drug store for five bucks. That got me keen and started exploring after that. Summer trip through WA and OR got me psyched for Deschutes and Rogue. had my first Stone beers around 2001 got pyched for the hops, went to Russian River near Gurneville, was blown away by their hoppy beers. Got hooked on IPAs. Moved back to Scotland in 2004, got depressed at lack of decent beers, although Sainburglars were selling Rogue at that point, maybe a bit ahead of the curve....Got bummed out at the lack of decent beers available so started brewing with a couple buddies. Its not hard to make good beer.
Mickos 31.07.2012 @ 12:08pm
when a bartender in Blackfriars recommended 5AM Saint (cask not keg)
david f 31.07.2012 @ 11:58am
A Punk,A Penguin & PortstreetbeerHouse........The End
Jyri 31.07.2012 @ 11:47am
A friend of mine nonchalantly asked if I had tasted any proper beer, and offered me a bottle of Harviestoun's Old Engine Oil. My mind was blown, not just because beer could taste good, but because it had any taste at all. It is kind of sad, that realizing beer can have more flavour besides just water and ethanol is a large enough surprise to be considered an epiphany.
Jimmy 31.07.2012 @ 11:42am
Getting dragged along to what I thought would be a boring trip to Bruges in 2002, only to be blown away by Rochefort 8
Ian G 31.07.2012 @ 11:31am
Lived 2005 to 2009 in the USA, and was amazed contrary to the evidence of US big-brand "beers" that the US was full of smaller breweries. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale was one of the first, but it got me curious as to the sheer variety available.When I moved to Norway, I was knocked out by Haand and by Nogne and more, and the fact that the state monopolised alcohol sales industry supported bars with a myriad of globally imported ales too (Something I'd never seen in the UK up to that point).About that time BrewGod started to make the news with its "gimmicky" TNP and STB, so it was a while before I saw past the quirky marketing to the quality of the products, and the support for wider craft brewing. I tasted the product, so I bought (a share in) the company.After Nogne #500 and BrewDog Imperial .... the rest is, as they say, history.
Laura M 31.07.2012 @ 11:27am
100s of beers since 2002 in the Ericht Alehouse, Blairgowrie. Love for the Scottish beer and ale scene grew since then!
BenH 31.07.2012 @ 11:27am
I was never really a fan macro-brewed lager and always struggled to find a beer I liked, usually settling for Guinness or a continental wheat beer if they had one. One day my local boozer got 5am saint and zeitgeist on tap. The barman gave me a taste of each, I wasn't a fan of the zeitgeist but the 5am saint changed my life. I'd never tastes anything like, so fruity and delicious. I couldn't get enough and wanted more. I went around all my local bottle shops clearing them out of 5am and searching for more great beers similar to that one. The guy in one bottle shop said I should try the American style ipa's and I've never looked back.Not just saying all this because it's the brewdog website but 5am really changed my life. Thanks guys for making that beer, the one that started it all for me....
Slybacon 31.07.2012 @ 11:17am
I was fortunate enough to grow up with a beer obsessed father #broughtupproper
Cabana Craft Beer 31.07.2012 @ 11:14am
I took a local beer in my town, called Liberation, I thought, "Man, what that? Flavor, color, aroma! Later came to know it was yeast, malt and hops! Since 2006 only think" craft beer "
Peter H 31.07.2012 @ 11:13am
In Prague, curiosity led me to a brewpub U Medvidku. Their 14.66˚P Lager and their 33˚P X-Beer literally forced me to look for craft beer and build my own microbrewery. I converted quite a lot of people since then.
Jeff R 31.07.2012 @ 11:08am
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale in Cocktails Bar B.D. Wisc. 1994. First taste of hops! Slippery slope...
Mr T 31.07.2012 @ 11:05am
Never liked industrial lagers. Had all but given up on beer until I found Punk IPA!
Bex 31.07.2012 @ 11:04am
On a visit to California I went on a tour of Anchor. Blown away by the passion of the brewers and the flavour of the beer.
Adrian M 31.07.2012 @ 11:01am
The first time I tried Sierra Nevada. I was blown away by hoppy awesomness!